Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and NFL writer Charles McDonald preview Sunday night’s battle of NFC contenders. Check out the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
With the Eagles’ offense, it’s kind of like the same thing every week.
If individual players you know, uh, at their skill positions, or Jalen Hurts, when he gets an opportunity, If they make big plays, they’ll probably win.
Uh, if they’re not, it’s going to be really, really tough to get through.
Um, because I’m with you, like with Kelvin Shepherd.
You know, Dan Campbell’s done this a few times now where he’s had to, like, promote guys and Shift around his, uh, his staff, and you know, for the most part, He’s been pretty good at it.
You know, You look at Ben Johnson, uh, Eric Glenn.
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Now you’ve got, Uh, Kelvin Shepherd, who was a linebacker coach, uh, and John Morton as an outside hire, or not an outside hire.
But, you know, he hadn’t been with the organization quite as long, Uh, as the other guys did.
But he’s done a pretty good job.
Identifying, you know, who has potential on staff.
And Kelvin Shepherd has really kind of turnarounds after a, A rough start to the year.
Um, and I think that’s good because it’s One of those situations where you remember, Oh, yeah.
Like if it’s your first time as a coach doing something, you probably might mess up a few Times, uh, when you’re trying to get things rolling.
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But, uh, are you going to learn from it, or are you going to be Rarahi Morris?
Like that’s the crux of the problem here.
And I think that Kelvin Shepherd has done a really good job.
Uh, uh, kind of adjusting to what the Lions have, uh, You know, presented some personnel, but they’re they’re fourth in the success rate, Uh, fifth in dropback success rate.
They’re, uh, Around the top 10, just overall EPA play, like, this is, This is a good defense against an offense that is not constructed very well.
But they have so many great players that they can still kind of get you.
So that’s where I kind of get hung up.
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Like, like, Like, I honestly think that last play against, Um, the one, the, the Sir Ami play where they went for it on fourth down, I think that’s kind of a great encapsulation, where it’s like, The idea that you’ll go for on that 4th down is not the most offensive thing.
But just to turn a blind eye, throw a go ball to A.J.
Brown, 40 yards down the field, Like that’s what you feel your offense has to be.
That’s, that’s like a high-low, not some like conceptno interacting, Just a 1-on-1 pinned against the sideline.
That, that, that didn’t make much sense.
But, you know, over the years we’ve seen enough times that they can win matchups.
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And when they do, like, theyre pretty tough to stop.
But it’s just so reliant on these one-on one matchups that I think that’s maybe where They fall into a bit of a rut this year where they don’t have a clear schematic Advantages.
And I think some of that is quarterback-related.
I mean, you have the 21st in offensive drop-back success rate for a reason this season.
Uh, theyve been kind of just okay.
Uh, they obviously allowed a lot of sacks.
They’re dead last in the league on average.
3rd-down distance at almost 8 yards per 3rd down, but, and Got a pretty good offensive line, and you can kind of survive those situations.
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And I think that they have a chance, but I, I just like the way Detroits offense and defense are so well coordinated.
It’s like, it really is just like that, all right.
Heres the Eagles; were going to roll out of bed.
We’re going to try to score as many points as we can while we can, The Lions approach is a bit more precise and its kind of funny to watch unfold Those, uh, matchups play out.